Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) Stock Price

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) had its target price increased by Morgan Stanley from $25.00 to $59.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

SATS has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $27.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $43.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of EchoStar from $28.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of EchoStar in a research report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, EchoStar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.90.

EchoStar Stock Up 15.5%

Shares of SATS stock opened at $58.76 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.96 and a beta of 0.94. EchoStar has a one year low of $14.90 and a one year high of $59.64. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $29.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

EchoStar (NASDAQ:SATS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($1.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. EchoStar had a negative net margin of 2.04% and a negative return on equity of 1.58%. The company’s revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.76) EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that EchoStar will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EchoStar

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in EchoStar by 11.5% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 31,594 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $875,000 after acquiring an additional 3,266 shares in the last quarter. Marex Group plc purchased a new position in EchoStar during the second quarter valued at $947,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in EchoStar by 5.4% during the second quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 103,871 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,878,000 after acquiring an additional 5,339 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in EchoStar by 23.8% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 14,815 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $410,000 after acquiring an additional 2,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in EchoStar by 7.1% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,839 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $411,000 after purchasing an additional 978 shares during the last quarter. 33.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EchoStar Company Profile

EchoStar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides networking technologies and services worldwide. The company operates in four segments: Pay-TV, Retail Wireless, 5G Network Deployment, Broadband and Satellite Services. The Pay-TV segment offers a direct broadcast and fixed satellite services; designs, develops, and distributes receiver system; and provides digital broadcast operations, including satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission and, other services to third-party pay-TV providers; and multichannel, live-linear and on-demand streaming over-the-top internet-based domestic, international, Latino, and Freestream video programming services under the DISH and SLING brand names.